Entrance of national parliament/ Photo by Lou Nelson/13.04.2023

The National Parliament has acquired 85 brand new vehicles for the leadership of the August House including the Chairpersons and deputies of the Specialized Committees.

John Agany who doubles as the chairperson of information committee and spokesperson of the parliament says the vehicles arrived in the country three weeks ago.

Agany – who also received a brand-new Toyota V6 car this week – said 34 the vehicles were delivered to the chairpersons, while their deputies received Toyota land cruisers.

He said the leadership of the parliament and some senior lawmakers also received the cars.

According to Agany, the process of purchasing the vehicles started two years ago, but due to financial constraints, the finance ministry could not deliver them on time.

“The Rt. Hon. Speaker Jemma Nunu Kumba did her level best to arrive into this state and she was able to deliver the cars to the new chairpersons.

“The cars arrived three weeks ago, you know the processes of bringing cars is very long, people go to Dubai, they come through Mombasa and from Mombasa they are supposed to be driven to Juba. They brought only 34 cars for the chairpersons and also deputy chairs they were given 42 cars.

“So in fact, it is like 85 cars. In our time, because of the difficulties that our government is in, they provided only one car and we have gone for two years without [cars] so it was really a struggle from the ministry of finance to make it happen.

“When the new minister is appointed in the national level, immediately in the following morning he is granted a car, but for us lawmakers who actually do the business of this budgeting making, we were patient all this time,” he said.

When asked how much was spent on the purchase of the vehicles, Agany declined to comment.

In August last year, the Minister of Finance and Planning said he intended to discourage the purchase of luxury vehicles such as V8 and V6 models by levying heavy taxation on their imports.

According to Dr. Barnaba Bak Chol, this move would help divert funds towards more pressing economic priorities and ensure that resources are channeled towards the recovery and growth of the nation.

In May 2015, South Sudan’s parliament raised a motion to prohibit the purchase of V8 vehicles by public institutions.

Lawmaker Zakaria Matur Makuer from Lakes State said a lot of public funds are being spent by government institutions every time there was a reshuffle.

Matur said South Sudan is the number one importer of Toyota Land Cruiser V8 vehicles in the region, if not in the world.

He said that V8 vehicles are very expensive to buy, run, and maintain.

Also in November last year, Bank of South Sudan’s First Deputy Governor called on government institutions to stop buying expensive cars such as V8s to save more money to improve the economy.

Samuel Yanga said the country can emulate the austerity measures the Khartoum government took in 1992, when all expensive government vehicles were sold, which saved 13 per cent of the country’s revenues.

He said V8s are costly and are not contributing to the economy of the country.

Samuel also added that the money used for luxurious vehicles can be utilized for service delivery.